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whats u opinion on it?[/quote]
This coach was in a no-win situation. If he pitches to the slugger, his teams’ parents and local sportswriters would probably be all over him for bad strategy. Because let’s be real: The media is nothing if not Monday morning quarterbacks. If he walks the slugger and pitches to the scrub, he’ll catch hell because the kid is a cancer survivor. And that opposing coach is full of crap; he would have done the exact same thing.

What I find disconcerting is the lesson that this kid is learning from all this. I understand his mom letting everyone in the league know that he has a shunt in his head, and that they have to be careful with him, but by that same token, this is one of life’s lessons. What kid doesn’t cherish the idea of being up there with the winning runs on base, with a chance to be a hero? He wants to be part of the team. And being part of the team means you take your lumps. Instead, I get the feeling that his parents love all the adulation that he gets being a cancer survivor and playing for a ballclub, but when the going gets tough they want to isolate him. It’s OK if his team wins, and he gets counted as one of the boys, but when it’s his turn to get up there and bat like everyone else on his team, there’s this huge uproar because, well, he’s a cancer survivor.

What lesson does this teach him? Well, it’s fine to be a cancer survivor and bask in what his team does, even though he’s the weakest hitter on his team and the rest of the team has to pick him up, but when he has to get up there and perform just like his teammates, it’s unfair because he’s a cancer survivor. It’s this attitude of having his cake and eating it too that bothers me. And unfortunately, it comes from the adults in his life. He wants to play, and his parents put him out there to play, but they want him to reap the rewards, mainly a championship, without getting him involved. It’s hypocritical.

The ones breath of fresh air in this whole thing is that while the adults all piss amd moan and complain about what happened, the kdi took it in stride and nuderstood what the problem was: Not that he was a cancer survivor who got picked on, but that he was a poor hitter who needs to improve.

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Here is the actual jersey:

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Am I the only person who thought this was a sperm the first time I saw it?

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Here is the actual jersey:

http://shop.nhl.com/...

BCrisp, trivia time: in Japan they wouldn’t let players whose numbers had been retired wear them again when they came back to coach or manage until very recently. Combine this with the unoffical rule that coaches, managers, and staff should have numbers higher than any player, and you get some oddities.

Sadaharu Oh, similarly, found himself wearing 89 when his playing career came to a close. Katsuya Nomura shuffled through 75, 73, and 83 before the expansion Rakuten Eagles, who have no retired numbers (and no winning seasons in their history, as things now stand) let him bring back his old No. 19.

The most famous example is the Yomiuri Giants’ Shigeo Nagashima, who wore No. 3 as a player but had to go with No. 90 when he took over the Giants as a manager. His rationalization for 90 (his old number 3, times 3 for the important people in his life, then a zero on the end because he wanted the team to be together in one circle) was extremely contrived.

Later the team relaxed the high-number rule but wouldn’t let him have his 3, so he was No. 33. Finally a giant exception was made and he got his old 3 back, to the delight of newspapers, TV stations, and fans everywhere.

One wag on the internet said, “Every news program featured stories about Nagashima changing his number. Any other player wouldn’t get that much attention if he changed his sex.”

Hopefully these silly rules about uni numbers will continue to be relaxed

Mark

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whats u opinion on it?[/quote]

I agree that it’s just good baseball strategy to walk the kid. Why was the team’s weakest hitter batting right after their best hitter? Sounds like bad managing to me.

Seems like yet another example of the parents and townspeople being more upset than the kid… it was nice to read his last quote, where he basically it has inspired him to get better.

They sure were. I actually attended a L.I. Ducks game at Commack Arena when I was maybe seven yrs old. Can’t say I remember much about it, though….

It is v-e-r-y hot here in Memphis.